Hospital Site

Save Mullum Hospital Site for the Community –

Breaking News … Literally ! It has been confirmed that the Department of Health and Property NSW are planning to

DEMOLISH THE MULLUMBIMBY HOSPITAL BUILDINGS IN APRIL THIS YEAR.
Public Meeting as below. ….

The Mullumbimby and surrounding community has loved and fought for this site for over 117 years – since the 1800’s. Around 1900 the site was gazetted for use as a hospital site. It took the community almost 70 years of support and fighting to have the hospital build in the lat 1960’s. And there were more fights with the hospital being closed at one point and community activism and outrage led to it being reopened.

Now it is our turn, Are we to let that site go out of the hands of the community?

Send a Message to this page’s Admin

This message is only visible to admins:Due to recent changes in the Facebook API it is unfortunately no longer possible to display individual featured events. Please see this page for more information.

Latest News on Progress with the Planning of the use of the hospital hill site.

COMMUNITY GROUPS SOUGHT TO JOIN MULLUM HOSPITAL PLANNING GROUP

In order to undertake a transparent process of establishing a Mullumbimby Hospital Project Reference Group (MHPRG) that will gain the best outcome for the future use of the hospital hill site, the formation of a temporary Project Guidance Group (PGG) who will work together to develop the framework and aims of the MHPRG was agreed.

The MHPRG will undertake a 12 month planning process to gain the best outcome from the future use of the Hospital Hill site for BSC, the Brunswick Valley community and its other stakeholders. The MHPRG will be made up of councilors, community groups and individual community members. The MHPRG membership will be confirmed in the September 21st Council meeting.

Expressions of Interest are currently being sought from community groups who have an interest in a member of the MHPRG.

If you are interested in joining the MHPRG please comment below or message this page or contact one of the PGG members. Put your name and what interest you have in the site e.g. aged care, dogs home etc... , what group you represent.

In the next month expressions of interest will be sought from individual community members (people who are not representing any particular group or interest area) to become members of the MHPRG as well. ... See MoreSee Less

2. That Council engage independent consultants to peer review the hazmat reports prepared for NSW Health for the former Mullumbimby Hospital site.

3. That a budget of $50K be approved by the Council to fund the independent peer review and that any remaining funds be used for the forward planning process.

4. That a Project Reference Group (PRG) be established with a sunset period of 12 months comprising up to 15 representatives from critical Mullumbimby stakeholder groups that includes at least two with commercial experience and skills. The PRG to propose and consider potential usesfor the former Mullumbimby Hospital site.

The PRG constitution to reference the following policyand objectives:A) Gain the best outcome from the future use of the Hospital Hill site for BSC, the BrunswickValley community and its other stakeholders. The best outcome is defined by a participatoryplanning process.B) Execute a world’s best practice participatory planning process for the future use of the HospitalHill Site that gives the community and all stakeholders a genuine and meaningful voice in shapingthe use of the site and that aligns with the “The community Charter – Planning for the people – acommunity charter for good planning in NSW”.

5. That the General Manager and staff work with the PRG to develop a proposed community engagement strategy.

6. That the expressions of interest for membership to the PRG be published at the next available opportunity with the submissions provided at the next Ordinary Meeting for determination.Hunter/Cameron)

May 14, 2014 ... Victory at Bentley as Metgasco's Bentley gas drilling suspended, referred to ICAC by the governmentMay 10, 2017 ... Victory at Mullumbimby as the Government agrees to sell the hospital site for $1 to local council.

"So we had the Greens, we had the Nationals and the ALP, and we had community groups, individuals, the council all fighting for the same cause and the result of that is a fantastic success,". ... See MoreSee Less

Great one Simon - This interview puts council completely aligned with community as Simon stated the council is:
1. getting the land for community use
2. Work with the community to create a trust or some other body to manage it

So if that happens is that a win for the people

Byron Shire Council wants it returned to the community free of charge – a request the state government is still considering. ... See MoreSee Less

There are a lot of people who are working on this campaign, but we have to make sure in our enthusiasm that we don't run over the people who have been working on this for a long long time. Some for over half a century.

Their desire is to not be shoved out of our community because when they reach their twilight years. In this article, MHAG said "A meeting of the action group on August 19 has proposed a campaign to lobby the government to develop the hospital site as a precinct for aged care facilities and services, housing for people with a disability, and affordable social housing for vulnerable and disadvantaged people, including domestic-violence victims."

As re-iterated in my interview with Elaine, the article also discusses the background of community involvement in making the hospital and its associated units available to the public.

"Group member Elaine Robinson said the community had been involved in fundraising for the hospital over many years and the trust had managed the area on Hospital Hill, including the community health buildings and adjoining nursing home site, for more than 100 years .

Mrs Robinson said the hospital’s beginnings could be traced back to 1900 when ‘A Mr Wallace’ owned a portion of the land and ‘deeded it in perpetuity to the town to build a hospital and health services when needed and we have always believed it was our land’.

She said the accident and emergency ward, built in 1988, was supported by tens of thousands of dollars in funding for the building and equipment, raised by local service clubs and the hospital auxiliary.

In 1993, the Susan Jamison Birthing Units facility was built and furnished with a donation of $300,000 from the Jamison family and more than $44,000 raised by the auxiliary.

Last week, ABC RN did a piece on birthing units and the Suzanne Jamieson Birthing Unit was mentioned as being the gold standard.

The history of giving birth is long in Mullumbimby. Due to the diligence of local ladies, and the bequeathment of Suzanne Jamieson Mullumbimby became one of the best birthing units in the country as mentioned by Prof Lesley Barclay.

In Historical account 'Fetch the Nurse and Call the Doctor, Quick', the seventh chapter, 'Untimely Arrivals', is about the challenges of giving birth in the Brunswick valley and the long dangerous trips the nurses, midwives, and doctors would have to make to help women give birth. Such a far flung story from today.

Biographical details for the interviewee:

Professor Lesley Barclay is an educational leader, health servicesresearcher and systemsreformer whose projects have improvedmaternal child health services in urban and remote Australia and internationally. Much of her recent research has been rural, remote or Indigenous focussed. Her current position is Professor and Director ofthe Centre for Rural Health in Lismore for Sydney University. ... See MoreSee Less

Byron Shire Mayor, Simon Richardson, was flown to Melbourne yesterday to present the Byron Shire Zero Emission story. To South East Melbourne’s Mayors and Councillors. Mayor Richardson also went to ...

Last week, I spent a day at the Historical Society in Mullumbimby as well as speaking at length with Elaine Robinson and Gill Lomath. Susan and Sarah, who help keep the place running and flowing, gave me access to the newspapers in their archives. Along with that, they gave me a small book written by a local called Neta MacKinnon and edited by Robyn Gray. Neta has passed away unfortunately, but her legacy of this book lives on.

A lot of the book discusses things not really relevant to our current battle to save the land and revamp how we use it once we save it, however, she did write a chapter on how and why the hospital came into being.

Until I started doing this research project, I had no idea that nurses and midwives ran the hospital and there were called laying in hospital and usually couldn't take infectious diseases, which left a huge gap in the health of the community. The 1918/9 Spanish Flu Epidemic would've strained this system and many much loved nurses and doctors succumbed to it during these times.

For Mullumbimby, the private hospital called Kurraba was gazetted to be a public institution in 1947. A board of directors that then became the trust was formed and continued until the fateful year of 2010. There of course were a few variations on the governance of the Hospital so this is just a overview.

Neta and Robyn do mention that the land was dedicated to a hospital in 1901, but unfortunately do not state their sources for this information. All they state is that the town planners of the time were far-sighted people.

Ah… I see you were curious about the Geometry icons :-)Being the creator of ByronNow.com gives me the opportunity to share my vision of how Sacred Geometry can help to accelerate human spiritual, mental and emotional evolution so that we can keep up with our technological evolution. I invite you to participate at my website SacredGeometryWeb.comwhere there is an interactive discussion forum.

I have recently published a book ‘Understanding the Flower of Life -.a Higher Dimensional Perspective on an Ancient Wisdsom Stream’, which you can currently read online for free at UnderstandingSacredGeometry.com

. You can also purchase copies there, or at all 3 Santos stores, or Mullumbimby Bookshop.

Hi –Send me an email using the form below.
I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Your Name (required)

Your Email (required)

Subject

Your Message

About ByronNow

ByronNow is created and maintained by me, Narada Dan Vantari of NaradaDesign.com. ByronNow is the result of my envisioning a possibility: to help local visionaries by showcasing what they are already posting on Facebook & Youtube – within the context of the Byron culture.

The content on this site is pulled in from Public FB Pages and Groups.Any local resident who manages a FB Page or Group with content that is uplifting, inspiring, enlightening, and good for the planet and its creatures, is welcome to apply to be included in ByronNow.To clarify, the FB Page must be specifically intended to be spiritually or politically, or in some other way, beneficial to the planet and its inhabitants, and it must be based in the Byron Shire at least partially.

I hope you will explore the huge quantity of inspiring posts here on the site. Please LIKE, SHARE, and COMMENT on posts to give back to the content creators. More about how it all works here.